Thursday, January 7, 2010

Don't Blame Bully's!

How many times have you watched a TV show, a movie, or maybe even lived the reality of watching a bully take some kids lunch money day after day. Even in the fantasy world of TV/Movies, it takes a long, long time before the kids are willing to stand up and stop the bully. Sadly they could have done it on day one, instead of day 942.

The theme running through all these accounts are that the bully has gone too far, but the kids still feel helpless.

Talking with numerous friends (liberal, conservative, libertarian, socialist, Democrat, Republican) the feeling amongst everyone is usually the same. Even the very excited Obama supporters are feeling the same way. And why not, the American people see no end in site for the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/Terror. They see bankers getting bailed out by the billions and if they don't want to take a pay cut to $600,000, they walk away from their jobs with $20 million severance packages - all of which wouldn't be possible without taxpayer subsidy.

Unemployment remains above 10%, but we've been told since April about the economic recovery - and the stock market runs over 50% since it's lows in March.

But it's not the bully's of the world who are to blame, it's the people who are too lazy to get off their ass and do something about it.

For a "free country" the media seems to report every piece of financial news with a grain of optimism. The few dedicated financial outlets seem dedicated to cheer leading Wall Street - ignoring the fact that the ONLY true gauge of inflation (Gold) was up almost EXACTLY the same amount as the market in 2009.

You don't need a conspiracy to realize that most people will take the easy road to complete a job. The FED and Treasury put out pre-written statements explaining the latest numbers. Why should a journalist re-write when their work is done for them already. They become reliant on their political contacts who are spoon feeding them the stories they write.

Somehow the 10% unemployment rate is a "lagging" indicator, without realizing that unemployment is ONLY a lagging indicator during cyclical recessions - NOT recessions where consumer credit is being withdrawn.

Unfortunately their are many more people to blame than the "media". Too many people are willing to trade freedom for safety. Some people love laws that restrict freedoms of the 4th Amendment (e.g. Patriot Act), others support the taking of private land to give to a rich developer (Kelo vs. City of New London), and still others support the theft of other peoples wealth to pay for welfare, health care.

All of the above take away our freedoms, while the latter also hurts future economic development and growth. We continue to create a society dependent on the gov't, but it only creates the dilemma when the gov't can't take more wealth to pay for these programs, what does a power like the USA end up doing?

First we go to war to distract the people. (Vietnam)Second, when that fails we start endless wars. (Terror)Third, to remove the excess labor supply we will go to multiple wars and institute a draft. (Iran, North Korea to come)Fourth, we will go to wars to confiscate others wealth.

There is hope! We must mobilize to throw out the politicians who support the Bush/Obama programs.

Hard to believe I'd be writing this but the Clinton years are looking better and better.